The girls are finally back. Totally Spies! is coming back to our screens for a seventh season and we are so excited!
The French-produced kid’s animation has been running for over two decades (I’m ignoring how old that makes me feel), having first aired in the United States in 2001. Totally Spies! brought us fabulous fights, stories, and, of course, fashion, and more is on the way.
The ’90s and ’00s brought us the pinnacle of female characters that attended high school by day and fought baddies by night, from live-action shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer to animated series like Kim Possible and, in this case, Totally Spies! The premise for the latter follows a trio of girls rather than one individual, in the form of Sam, Clover, and Alex, as they try to get through high school while saving the world from villains for the World Organization of Human Protection (WOOHP).
Despite being French-produced, the series first aired in 2001 on ABC Family before its French premiere in 2002 on TF1’s TFOU. It then moved to Cartoon Network for seasons 2-5. Fans were left to wait with bated breath to see if there would be a sixth season, which they were granted in 2013, five years after the end of season 5. A movie was released in the interim in 2009 theatrically in France, where the show has a strong following, and it was telecast in the United States.
Totally Spies! season 7 is so close!
It’s been over a decade since the last season of Totally Spies! premiered, and now, finally, we are getting a seventh season. In 2022, one of the staff who had worked on the series, Thomas Astruc, announced that a seventh season was on the way, and within a week, new character designs were released. It was originally set to be released in 2023 but was then pushed to 2024. The most recent news came courtesy of the French TV network, Gulli, who posted that the release date for the season in France would be May 12, 2024.
Is the voice cast returning?
Unfortunately, it looks as if the original cast will not be returning to their roles, with actor Jennifer Hale, who voiced Sam, confirming on X that she had not been asked to return, adding, “I remember hearing that they didn’t want to pay union rates.” It would appear that Andrea Baker, who voiced Clover, will also not be returning after a DM was spread around social media stating so. If this is the case for these two actresses, then it’s likely that Katie Griffin, who played Alex, will not return either.
It would be a shame to think that the original actors would have lost out due to contract issues, but, perhaps, with a new look, the show is also opting for fresh voices. Fans of the show will undoubtedly feel a little let down that the characters will not sound the way they remember, however.
What’s season 7 about?
There has been very little in the way of information regarding the next season, though Banijay Kids & Family, the company that produces the series, discussed a little of what we might expect with Benoît Di Sabatino, producer and Banijay Kids & Family CEO, saying:
The new series stays true to all the key elements that make the show so popular, but has been lovingly updated for a new audience, reflecting the modern challenges faced by both high-schoolers and spies alike!
The announcement also mentioned that Sam, Clover, and Alex will move to a new city and take on a fresh crop of villains. The only thing that rings a little odd about this statement is that the last time we saw the girls, they were already in college having finished high school. Will they be heading back or was this just a mistake?
Though we know of the release date for the upcoming season for French audiences, it is not yet clear when we can expect to see the show in North America, though we doubt we will have to wait much longer.
(featured image: Gulli/Banijay Kids & Family)
